Author: Editorial
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: September 18, 2004
URL: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/854931.cms
The government should dump the Haj
subsidy, rather than expand its benefit to income-tax payers, as proposed
by minister of state for home Sriprakash Jaiswal.
A secular State has no business
subsidising religious pilgrimage. Further, it offers no real benefit to
Muslim pilgrims - the 'subsidised' rate they pay is probably higher than
what commercial operators would charge for an assured supply of such large
volumes of travellers.
At the same time, the subsidy patronises
the pilgrims and becomes an instrumentality of votebank politics. The only
gainers from the subsidy are the votaries of communal politics.
Indira Gandhi introduced the Haj
subsidy as a temporary measure after the oil crisis of the '70s and it
should have been phased out a long time ago.
In fact, Parliament's Standing Committee
on External Affairs had time and again raised the issue of reducing Haj
subsidy and abolishing it eventually during the Narasimha Rao regime in
the early nineties.
The Expenditure Reforms Commission
in its tenth report submitted in September 2001 had also suggested that
steps should be taken to end subsidy on charter flights for Haj. The Union
Cabinet then decided in September 2003 to limit subsidy for Haj pilgrims
to once in a lifetime. Further, income-tax payers would not be entitled
to any subsidy.
Interestingly, no Islamic country
offers any subsidy for Haj pilgrims. Pakistan used to, for a while, until
the Lahore High Court banned the practice. For, it is against Islamic theology
to be obligated to anyone for performing Haj.
Haj is obligatory only for those
who can afford the costs involved in its performance. In fact, enlightened
Muslim leaders in India have been advocating the reduction and eventual
abolition of Haj subsidies.
Such subsidies benefit only a minuscule
number (only about 70,000 Hajees and the Haj committee members gain) but
140 million Muslims have to pay a heavy political price for it. The nation
can do without it even though Jaiswal may find it useful to woo UP Muslims
away from the Samajwadi Party.
